


The Heart of the Mountain

by BlackCatNiku



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (2010), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe, And I was not very original with their names, And angst, And possibly sassy Smaug, And sarcasm, Crossover, I just remebered the angst, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sass, Sassy Hiccup, a lot of OCs - Freeform, lost and lots of angst, lots of sass, mentions of Toothless, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-10 12:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1159653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCatNiku/pseuds/BlackCatNiku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During his and Toothless' Fight with the Red Death, Hiccup died, saving his village, and freeing the dragons from the control of the Red Death.  In return, the dragons claimed Hiccup's soul as their own, binding him to the land where he died.  His soul eventually took the form of a stone that was hidden away deep within the mountain.</p><p>Time passed and Dragon Island became part of a continent, and the mountain of the island became known as Erebor.</p><p>It's a shame no one told the Dwarves just what they were getting into when the came across the one thing all dragons coveted, even after all these generations have passed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I hope everyone enjoys this. Please feel free to leave comments. Critique is always welcome, as is advice.

 

**Prologue**

 

I remember fire, a lot of fire, on the day I died. Well, the fire was kind of expected considering me and Toothless had just caused a giant dragon to explode by lighting its insides on fire. But still, it...was not the most pleasant thing to remember. In fact, it was not pleasant at all to remember and I preferred to not think about it if I could.

I had died that day, protecting my tribe, protecting Berk, protecting my dad. That was what the people of Berk and the surrounding lands remembered me for. But what was never spoken of among them, from what I heard, was that they never spoke of how I had died that day protecting the dragons of Dragon Island, and even freeing them from the plague control of the Red Death.

This was something that the dragons noted, and even focused on. Their lives had been made absolutely miserable and horrifying because of that monstrous beast of a dragon, and a tiny little hiccup of a human had stopped it alongside one of their most feared warriors.  
So the dragons decided that they would not let me go.

One thing that the Book of Dragons never spoke of was how covetous dragons could be when they desired something. Once they decided that they wanted something or that something was theirs, they hardly ever let it go. Sometimes not even death could take what they coveted from them.

I am one such object that they would not let death take. The dragons bound my soul to the island I had died on.

When the world had finally seemed to settle around me after the fiery explosion that killed me, I hadn’t even realized that I had died. I was disoriented and confused, trying my hardest to figure out how I survived. Imagine my surprise when someone walked through me. More specifically, when my dad walked through me.

I watched confused, scared, and hurt as Toothless gave my dad my body. I had never seen my dad like that before. Looking so broken, as if his world had just ended.  
The tribe left soon after, Toothless not going with them. Some of the other dragons went, but most stayed. And when I tried to follow, Toothless stopped me.  
It was then I received one of the biggest shocks of my afterlife. Toothless spoke, and I understood him. I instinctually knew that he was communicating in the same way he had been when I was alive, but now that I was dead, for some reason I could understand him.

Toothless explained it to me. My place was no longer with my people, or even humans in general. Now my soul was tied to the dragons, for they now guarded my soul with a covetous jealousy I had never foresaw. Something about me had changed as well, though physically I still looked the same. Toothless said I was now a Dragon-kin, and every dragon now and forever would recognize me as such.

I was...bothered by this at first. I wasn’t sure if I should panic or be angry, so I went with both, but who could really blame me? I mean, I had just died! And now I was being told that the dragons practically owned me?!

Of course, I found out later that, in a sense, the dragons did own me. It did not bother me so much after I had gotten used to the idea.

A few days after my freak out, I did manage to calm down. It was easier to accept after the shock of my death had finally sunk in and I had calmed down about that.  
It was around that time that some of the dragons that had returned to Berk, came back to the island. I recognized them as the dragons from the arena. They informed me that I had been given a hero’s funeral and the people of Berk were trying to change their ways in remembrance of me.

It was kind of nice to know.

 

* * *

 

I found out pretty quick that when you’re dead, time flows a little differently. Sometimes it seems to move so fast, that when you blink a decade has passed. Other times, it seems to move so slow that it feels almost like an eternity has passed before a season changes.

I was happy to see that Toothless’ tail fin did eventually grow back, and a little sad. He could fly, but being bound to the land probably meant that I could not. Toothless happily informed me that I could in fact join him, but I could not leave the borders of the island.

So together, he and I would soar through the skies above the land that had become my home, making sure that everything was well, helping protecting it from outsiders, be they human or invading dragons, and making sure that everyone was getting on fine. We helped solved more than a few territorial disputes.

I found these activities enjoyable, but every once in a while, I would become unexplainably tired. I never really like that when it happened because I discovered that when I entered a “sleep state” as the dragons called it, years could pass so quickly. The first time I fell into a sleep state, I “slept” an entire decade away.  
It was very disorienting and really kind of unnerving.

Toothless told me that the sleep state was common, which I’m not sure I want to know how he knew that, and that it was fine. The dragons would look after me as I slept within the mountain.

But as time went on, each time I woke up, there were fewer and fewer dragons. It bothered me a great deal more than I thought it would, but I suppose it was from spending all that time around them that they had become my family. Even Toothless seemed bothered by the decline in dragons coming to and living on the island.  
Eventually with the seas and land changing around Dragon Island and the decline in dragons, Toothless and the few other dragons remaining on the island decided that I needed to remain within the mountain. They believed it would be safer for me, and they were probably right. Once Toothless was the only one who remained, the mountain was definitely safer.

What scared me the most at this point was I knew that Toothless would not be with me for much longer. That one day he too was going to leave and never come back. And when that time came, I did not know I was going to do. I would be alone. There would be no more dragons.

That day when Toothless had to leave for the final time came sooner than I would have hoped, and definitely sooner than I would have ever wanted. I did not want to lose my oldest and closest friend. I did not want to be alone.

So Toothless took me deep within the mountain, hidden from the rest of the world, and stayed with me as I cried, a feat I found I could still do even though I was dead. I cried as I clung to him, and he held me against him as he had done many times before, as if I were a small child. He held me until I had cried myself into a sleep state.

I do not know if it was something Toothless did, or if it was magic, or a god or goddess’ doing, but as I slept, my soul began to change. I was still myself in personality and thought, and my emotions were still my own, but my physical form changed. I began to develop a corporeal form. People could see me, and touch me.

It was strange, though. I did not take a human or human-like form, nor the form of a dragon, which by that point I would have no doubt preferred, but I took on the shape of a stone. A gem to be precise. A glowing white gem.

Obviously, I didn’t find out about this change until after I had woken up. And it was a very, very, very long time before I had awoken.  
And I think, perhaps, the oddest thing was, was that I wasn’t woken up by dragons as I had hoped and expected.

No.

I was awakened by creatures known as Dwarves.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not beat-ed, so any mistakes are my own. I apologize now.

Hiccup had been asleep for a very, very long time.  So long, in fact, that the world as he knew it had changed completely.  The seas had receded and what was once an island was now part of a vast continent.  Not that Hiccup really cared as he began to stir within his precious glowing shell.  No.  For all Hiccup cared, the world could have just as well burned down around his mountain home.

Toothless was not there, and would never be there ever again.  A world without Hiccup’s oldest and closest companion would be cold and empty, and quite honestly a world Hiccup wanted no part of.  But as much as Hiccup wanted to remain asleep and ignorant of this new world that did not have Toothless, he could not.

Through the stone walls that had built up around him over the vast stretch of time, Hiccup could hear beings of some sort moving around, speaking in a tongue that was not yet familiar to him.  Hiccup could feel the faintest vibrations that was carried through the stone as the new occupants moved about and worked at the stone walls that had been Hiccup’s home longer than they had existed.

He laid there, awake and listening, trapped by the stone that now guarded him.  Of course, ‘for how long?’ he wondered more than once.  If these beings were working at the stone, then, sooner or later, they would eventually find him.  But that would probably not happen for a very long time, if Hiccup was honest with himself, for Hiccup was buried deeply in the mountain.

So Hiccup laid there, listening and learning about these beings known as ‘dwarves’.  Hiccup had also heard the terms ‘dwarrow’ and ‘dwarrows’ used as well, but he wasn’t quite sure if that was interchangeable with ‘dwarves’ or only in certain circumstances.  Though Hiccup had commonly heard the female dwarves being referred to as dwarrowdams.

Years went by and Hiccup began to learn their language, Khuzdul.  Hiccup didn’t doubt he could learn to speak it, but he chose not to anyways, for he had quickly found out how secretive about their language dwarves could be.  So instead, Hiccup chose to simply learn how to understand it.  He was grateful to find that the dwarves spoke another language, one that Hiccup was familiar with, which was called common tongue or common for short, that he could use as a reference to make sure he was translating correctly.

After figuring out the language, Hiccup began listening to the dwarves carefully, deciding to learn about their culture and life styles.  It was pure accident that Hiccup began becoming attached to certain dwarves he listened to.  He usually tried to bounce around among the numerous dwarves to get as many different views as possible, bout oddly enough, he always found himself going back to a specific few.

The few were usually outcasts in some form or fashion, not quite fitting in with their peers, with no fault of their own.  Hiccup supposed the reason he was drawn to them, was because he could relate, considering his life before he befriended a dragon.

Of course, Hiccup would always keep an eye on the children,  He had a soft spot for younglings, as he had heard dragons refer to the young of any creature.  He had been so fond in fact, that during the times of the dragons, he had been made Hatchling Sitter.  That, however, was a story for a different time.

Hiccup was pleased to hear that children were precious and cherished, and even if they were odd in one form or fashion, the parents and families would try their best to be accepting.  This, however, did not mean that Hiccup had never been witness to bullying among the mountain.  It was mostly among the children; older kids picking on the younger dwarflings, as was common among most creatures.  However, when an adult became part of the mix, Hiccup would burn with a fury most commonly seen among dragons, but there was little he could do at this point.

There were also the times where a child’s family would be neglectful or abusive, but those were rare and far in between.  Still, those incidents would leave Hiccup seething and wishing he could do something.

 

* * *

It was after one of his longer sleeps, that Hiccup learned he _could_ do something.

Hiccup had woken up and began checking about, seeing how long he had been asleep for this particular time.  He was a little bothered to discover that one of the little she-dwarves he had watched over was now grown.  She had had a son of her own, and her son had a son, making the once young girl a grandmother.

He was listening in on the dwarrowdam, and quickly discovered that she, her son, and his wife were quite upset.  The grandson was missing, and no one in their area had seen him for several hours.

Hiccup quickly located the boy and found him in one of the many innumerable storage spaces throughout the mountain.  The lad seemed very upset and was crying out for his family.  Hiccup pleaded with whatever deity that was listening, for apparently the gods that Hiccup had known no longer existed, that he could do something, _anything_ , to help the small dwarf child.

Imagine his surprise when hiccup suddenly felt as if he was being pulled in two.  It was excruciatingly painful, and extremely disorienting.  It became even more disorienting when Hiccup realized that he was in two places at once, and both of his ‘bodies’ were providing sensory input.

Hiccup heard the child’s startled scream, but at the moment was trying to reorient himself, and get control of his senses.  He some how managed to do this fairly quickly, silently throwing out a thank you to which ever deity had granted him this, and returned to his focus, not only to the child, but to what had occurred as well.

It would seem that this new form was merely an extension of the stone, and not a true body.  An astral projection, Hiccup assumed.  He had heard the dragons speak of something like this before, but it was hardly brought up, so Hiccup had not really concerned himself with it.  So Hiccup concluded that the gem that was his corporeal form was his heart in a sense, and he was projecting himself where he wanted, appearing as he had when the dragons had still been there.  Looking the same as the day he died.

At the sound of the child’s whimper, Hiccup immediately focused on the boy and offer him a small smile.

“Hey,” Hiccup greeted carefully, kneeling down to the dwarflings level.  “It’s okay.  I’m not going to hurt you.  I just want to help.”

The little dwarf sniffled, as he eyed Hiccup suspiciously.

“Wh-what are you,” the child finally asked.

Hiccup hesitated as he thought about what he would say.  Finally he decided that the truth, minus several details, would work best.

“I am a spirit of the mountain,” Hiccup answered.

The little lad blinked, obviously having not expected that answer.  A suspicious little scowl, however, crossed the little one’s face not even a few moments later.

“I don’t believe you,” the boy snapped with a huff.

Hiccup felt his lips twitch as a memory of some very innocent, but smart-allicky hatchlings who did something very similar.

“Is that so,” Hiccup said in a lightly teasing voice.

“’Tis,” the boy insisted.

“Well then, tell me how I knew where you were and suddenly appeared here before you, if you don’t mind.”

The little dwarfling opened his mouth to retort, but paused with a stunned silence.  His eyes went wide as he stared as Hiccup who had just settled himself down in front of the dwarfling.

“Y-you knew I was here?”

“I did.  I also know your family is looking for you.”

“Did you tell them where I was,” the boy asked hopefully.

Hiccup bit his bottom lip, frowning.

“No,” he admitted.  “I did not.”

The boy’s face fell.

“I’m sorry,” Hiccup said softly.  “I had just woken up and was checking on your grandmother when I over heard them say you missing.”

“‘Sleeping’,” the boy asked in confusion.

“That’s right.  Sometimes I go to sleep, and I sleep for a very long time.  So you see, your grandmother was a little girl the last time I checked in on her.”

The little boy’s eyes widened and he breathed a hesitant, “really?”

“Yes, really,” Hiccup chuckled.

Hiccup leaned closer to the boy, glancing around as if to make sure that they were alone, and cupped a hand around the side of his mouth.

“Do you want to know a secret,” Hiccup whispered.

The little dwarf leaned in, nodding excitedly.

“You’re the first person I have shown myself to,” Hiccup told him.

“Wow,” the dwarfling mouthed.  He then added in a hushed whisper, “Does this mean I am special?”

Hiccup paused to think about this for a moment before leaning back with a smile.

“Of course you are,” Hiccup assured him.  “Everyone has something that makes them special.  You just have been the first to see me makes you even specialer.... Is that even a word?”

The boy let out a giggle.

“Anyways, you are special because you are you.  And because your family loves you so much.”

It had taken Hiccup a long time for the dragons to get Hiccup to learn that he was special in a good way simply for being himself, and that being different was not bad.  It just meant that you were different and not like anyone else.  Being different was almost never a bad thing.

“Hey, Mister Spirit,” the boy said, gaining Hiccup’s attention once more.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have a name?”

“Yeah, I do.  It’s a bit silly, but my name is Hiccup.”

“‘Hiccup’,” the boy gasped with a giggle.  “That’s a silly name.”

“Indeed it is,” Hiccup chuckled.  “So do you have a name, Master Dwarf?”

The little dwarfling puffed up and proudly said, “I am Lóni, son of Ibûn, one of the best cooks in all of Erebor.”

Hiccup chuckled, suspecting that this was merely the praise of a child who adored his father.

“Mister Hiccup,” Lóni said.

“Just ‘Hiccup’ is fine.”

“Hiccup, how did you get your name?”

Hiccup paused once more and thought for a long moment, having not expected that question.  He then smiled at the dwarfling kindly.

“Why don’t I tell you the story of how I became a mountain spirit while we wait for your family?”


End file.
